Buhari, Araraume, Tinubu
By Victory Oghene
Talk about one politician cum businessman who has carved a niche for himself and Senator Ifeanyi Araraume will readily springs to mind.
He is a long distance political runner, and many consider him a political juggernaut and shrewd businessman who has had a feel of many parties, an experience that enriched his political experience, this long distance jump in party politics has come with some triumphs, setbacks and controversies for Ararume.
It was a measure of his political weight and value that former President Muhammdu Buhari appointed him non executive chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) and just before its inauguration the appointment was cancelled and replaced with Senator Margret Chuba Okadigbo, widow of former Senate President Chuba Okadigbo.
Araraume, has recently made an appeal to President Bola Tinubu to revisit the issue of his composition of the NNPCL Board and Management with a view to rescinding his appointment of a new board and management team for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). Araraume premised his plea on a court judgement he obtained in April 2023.
It would be recalled that Senator Araraume was appointed as the board chairman of the NNPCL in September 2021 and then in a manner widely regarded as cryptically political was removed just before its inauguration in January 2022 by then-President Muhammadu Buhari.
The abrupt termination of his appointment without due process led Araraume to seek redress in court as he sued Buhari and the NNPCL at the Federal High Court in Abuja on 12 September 2022, calling in question and challenging his removal about eight months earlier.
Ruling on the suit in April, the judge, Inyang Ekwo, overturned Senator Araraume’s removal as NNPCL chair and awarded N5 billion damages in his favour. According the judge, Mr Araraume’s removal was unconstitutional and as such, ordered that he be restored as the Non-Executive Chairman of the national oil company with full benefits. The judge also set aside every decision taken by the board that was appointed after Senator Ararume’s removal.
However, the government appealed against the Federal High Court judgement at the Court of Appeal in Abuja where the appeal is still pending.
In the thick of the legal imbroglio, Tinubu who came to power in May 2023, later constituted a new board and management of NNPCL weeks after coming to power. The President appointed Pius Akinyelure, who was the President’s boss at Mobil years back, as Non-Executive Board Chairman of NNPCL, while Mele Kyari was reappointed as Group Chief Executive Officer of the government oil company. Ararume was further disappointed by the recomposition which did not include him on the board.
Senator Ararume’s lawyer, Ogwu Onoja, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), cautioned the public against having any dealings with the Akinyelure-led new board. In a statemen released on November 30, 2023, Onoja faulted the reconstitution of the board when the matter was still pending. He stressed that the matter should have been settled before the President constituted the new board and management adding that due process has been abused.’’
Mr Onoja said the 27 November appointment of the NNPCL management team was in “utter violation of the judgment and order of the Federal High Court, Abuja dated 18 April 2023.”
He said the court restrained the president from removing Senator Araraume’s name from the Corporate Affairs Commission as a Non-Executive Director of NNPC Ltd.
“This judgment remains valid and subsisting until this moment without being set aside.
“We state that the purported appointment amounts to a flagrant disobedience of court order and brazen disregard of the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction. We are appalled and shocked that the President could brazenly disobey the court judgment by purporting to appoint a New Board and Management Team for NNPC Ltd instead of giving implementation to the said judgment of the Federal High Court delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo on the 18 April 2023.”
Mr Onoja said he was dismayed that President Tinubu “has taken the laws into his hands to overrule the courts and usurp the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal before whom the President has filed an appeal which is pending.”
He went on: “With the said judgment still valid and subsisting, it is clear as crystal even to the common man that the appointment of the new Board and Management of the NNPC Ltd by the President on the 27 November 2023, is illegal, wrongful, null and void and of no legal consequence.
“By this Notice, the general public is therefore warned to beware of those illegal appointments in their own interest. The public is urged to avoid having any dealings whatsoever with the new Board and Management of the NNPC Ltd as anyone who goes ahead to do any business or transactions with them will be doing so at his or her own peril.
“We hereby call on Mr President, who is a huge beneficiary of judicial pronouncements and rule of law, to reverse his decision and allow the flow of the rule of law.
“Mr President should have known that respect for rule of law is equally a strong factor in the attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FOI), which he has been travelling all over the world to promote.”
It would be recalled that former president , Muhammudu Buhari had appointed Senator Araraume as the non-executive chairman of the NNPC Limited for a five-year term in September 2021.
The appointment issued to Senator Araraume by Boss Mustapha, the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation had by virtue of the letter dated 20 October 2021, took effect from 21 September 2021, the date NNPC Limited was incorporated as a private company limited by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
The incorporation of the national oil company was necessitated by the coming into force of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, which led to the unbundling of the agency which had operated for decades as a public corporation.
The new board was initially scheduled to be inaugurated by President Buhari on 24 November 2021, but was suspended indefinitely without any reason offered on the eve of the scheduled event.
The presidency, on 5 January, made a fresh announcement of the appointment to the NNPC Limited’s board which revealed that Senator Ararume’s name had been replaced. Other appointees’ names remained on the list as earlier announced in September 2021. No reason was given for the replacement of Senator Ararume’s name.
Senator Ararume said in his suit that the inauguration of the board on 7th of January with another person named as the non-executive chairman of the company came to him as a surprise.
He said he only received a letter dated 17th January informing him of the withdrawal of his appointment 10 days after the inauguration of the board.
“That no reasons whatsoever were adduced by the 1st defendant in the said letter 17th day of January 2022, warranting my purported removal or withdrawal of my appointment as the non-executive chairman of the 2nd defendant,” he wrote in his affidavit filed in support of his suit.
He stated that he had assumed duty as the non-executive chairman of the company on 12 November 2021, and, in that capacity, subsequently attended the 23rd World Petroleum Congress at Houston, Texas in the United States.
Having been appointed, Senator Araraume said, inauguration was “merely a ceremonial event” with no legal effect on his status and that of the other directors.
He said Mr Buhari lacked the power to remove him at will as his office was governed by the Companies and Allied Matters, 2020, the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, and the company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association.
He said he was never found guilty of any “of the pre-conditions for the removal of a non-executive chairman/director of the 2nd defendant as prescribed in the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021 and/or the Articles of Association of the 2nd defendant or the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020”. He added that he never resigned from office and was not dead.
“That I have never been adjudged or declared bankrupt or insolvent nor have I at any time whatsoever made any such arrangement or assignment, with my creditors, which has not been rescinded or set aside;
“That no medical practitioner has given any medical opinion to any of the defendants that I am medically or physically incapable of discharging the functions of my office as a result of any infirmity of body or mind as the non-executive chairman of the 2nd defendant;
“That I have never demonstrated an inability to perform or to continue to perform the functions of my office as the non-executive chairman of the 2nd defendant,” the plaintiff wrote.
He, therefore, urged the court to declare that Mr Buhari lacked the power to remove him from office for “any reason(s) whatsoever outside the conditions specifically listed in the said Section 63(3) of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021.”
The former governorship candidate in Imo State filed the suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, on 12th of September, to challenge his removal about eight months earlier.
He argued that his sacking was “wrongful,” and amounted to “disruption and interruption” of the term of his office.
He said it violated various provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters (CAMA), 2020, the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, and the company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association.
Lending his voice to the call for justice, Professor Adeagbo Moritiwon noted that ‘’Ararume has suffered a lot of political injustices in the past. The matter was political, I mean his removal and replacement was an extension of Imo politics. It was high stake political game, some vested interest worked against him. What Buhari wanted to do by giving Araraume appointment was to compensate him for his contribution to the victory of APC but some powerful interest prevailed on Buhari to remove him. What Tinubu ought to have done was to include him in the reconstitution of the board.
